John Strickland (1601-1670)

Pastor, theologian and a Member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster.

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“We are a people generally refusing to be healed, hating to be reformed.”

His Works:

The works of John Strickland previously published in old English (Puritan Publicationshas published all of Strickland’s sermons in one volume.)

1.God’s Work of Mercy in Zion’s Misery; a sermon preached from Isa. 10:20, before the honourable House of Commons at Margaret’s, Westminster, Dec. 27, 1649. 4to. pp. 53. London, 1644.
2.A Discovery of Peace: or, The Thoughts of the Almighty for the ending of the People’s Calamities,etc. on Jer. 29:11. 4to. Lond. 1644.
3.Immanuel: or, The Church Triumphing in God with Us; a sermon preached from Psalm 46:7, before the Right Honourable House of Lords, in the Ab¬bey of Westminster, at their public Thanksgiving, Nov. 5th, 1644. 4to. pp. 36. Lond. 1644.
4.Mercy Rejoicing against Judgment, or, God Wanting to be Gracious to a sinful Nation; a sermon preached from Isa. 30:18, before the Honourable House of Commons, in Margaret’s, Westminster, Fast, Oct. 99th, 1645. 4to. pp. 88. London, 1645.5. The Kings entertainment at Yorke: as it was related by John Strickland, the 22. of March, 1641 (1641)

Biography of John Strickland (1601-1670):

John Strickland (1601-1670) was born of, and descended from, an ancient and genteel family of his name in the county of Westmoreland in the north of England. He received his education in Queens-College, Oxford, where he became a Butler, in the beginning of the year 1618, aged seventeen years. He took the degrees of Arts, and entered into the holy ministry. His first preferment was to be chaplain to the Earl of Hertford. In the month of May, in the year 1632, he was admitted Bachelor of Divinity; and in December that same year, Sir John Horner presented him to the Rectory of Middleton, or Pudimore Milton, in Somersetshire. Mr. Wood says that he was always Puritanically affected, which is very probable. Upon the commencement of the civil war, he espoused the cause of the Parliament, and preached frequently to the members, exciting them, as Wood says, “to proceed in their blessed cause.”

He was chosen one of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and is said to have constantly attended. He seems to have been a superadded Divine. He was a Covenanter; and by his fervent zeal for the interests of the Redeemer’s kingdom, he has incurred the great displeasure of the Royal party. Mr. Wood says, that, “he prayed several times blasphemously.” But this is not true and Dr. Calamy here observes, “He might as well have said he used to come into his pulpit naked, and without a rag of cloths on; for the one is not more ridiculous to those who knew the man, than the other.” Mr. Wood says, “that in 1645 or thereabout, he was made Minister of Peter’s le poor in London, where he exercised his gifts against the King and his party, and was never lacking to excite the auditors to carry on the said cause.” Afterward he became pastor of Edmund’s Church in Salisbury. He was eminently distinguished for expounding the holy Scriptures, and for being an excellent Causist. About the year 1654, he was constituted an assistant to the commissioners of Wiltshire for ejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers and schoolmasters. On the fatal Bartholomew day, he was turned out of Edmund’s parish in New Sarum, by the Act of Uniformity, for his refusal to conform to the service, ceremonies and corruptions, of the Church of England. He continued among his people, and preached to them as he had opportunity, and suffered many ways for his Nonconformity. Mr. Wood says he had been informed, that for keeping conventicles in, and near, Salisbury, he was imprisoned several times. The faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ have been oftentimes in prison.

He died in the month of October, in the year 1670. He was well in health and then dead, in a very short time. He died on the evening of a Lord’s Day, after he had preached twice, from 2 Pet. 1:11, and administered the Lord’s Supper. Finding himself disordered, he made this known to those persons who were about him, and then sat down in a chair and died. His remains were interred on the Oct. 25, 1670, and they were accompanied to his grave by a numerous company of his friends. Dr. Calamy says, “His name is remembered with great respect to this day, at Sarum, where his body lies buried in St. Edmund’s church-yard.” The Doctor also says, that Mr. Strickland “was really a great Divine, and generally esteemed.” He was accounted a most faithful preacher. (See Wood’s Athen. Oxon, vol. 2. Calamy’s Account, volume 2, p. 755.)